Wednesday, October 29, 2014

At last my internet has decided to work again so, here are pictures from a couple of weeks ago on the building site.

The neighbours wall that collapsed in the accident is replaced (better than it was before)

The gates have been rehung (but still need a little adjusting)

Pilings are dug for the supporting pillars that will hold up the second floor

Support pillars for the new Ministry Center

Recycling the rebar from the original

The newest addition to the project is the guard room

We decided to build the guard room early on to allow us to connect to the electric company (hopefully). Please pray that this will be a possibility that happens in good timing (and soon) as this can pose real challenges here.

Friday, October 17, 2014

Wednesday I (Dave) met with a couple of young men from the
church to debrief their visit to a village last weekend. Their visit had been
the first in a few months due to vacation travels and other distractions. They
had intended to attend the Sunday morning service but arriving at 9 AM they
were disappointed to find only one person in the village. He informed them that
because it was harvest season, they had met around 7 AM to sing and pray before
heading out to the fields. We began to discuss potential strategies as they made
observations concerning the exodus towards the city of most of the men in the
village.

My meeting with the two guys almost got cancelled just as it
began. We had just ordered lunch when Jennifer called. “I just filled up the
car with gas and now it won’t start—it won’t even turn over.” It was already
1:30 PM and probably over 40 degrees. Do
I call the meeting off and go rescue my wife? “Call the mechanic and get him to
come,” I decided. Something about the timing seemed fishy. It reminded me of when we started a prayer
group in our church back in Caistor Centre. The second week we met to pray, Jennifer and I arrived extra early at the church
and waited for the other ladies to come.
And we waited. Finally I felt that we needed to pray that people would
be free to come. No sooner did we finish praying than the ladies started to
arrive. “Did you just unlock the door?” they asked. One woman had tried the
door and sat in her car in the driveway for ten minutes because when she tried
it the first time it was “locked. ” Another who lived next door had been over
and tried once and gone home because the door was “locked.” Both decided to
come back and try once more while we prayed for their arrival. Suddenly the
door that had been “locked” was now open—though no one had touched it in
between times. On Wednesday, our faithful mechanic sent a couple of his workers
over to rescue Jennifer (I am useless when it comes to fixing cars). When they
arrived they tried once more to start the car, even though Jennifer had tried
several time while waiting and even had a gas attendant look under the hood. It
started immediately when they tried before they did anything else. When I
called the mechanic later to ask about it, he said his guys thought maybe the battery
clamps were a little loose and so they tightened them, just in case.

Please pray for the church as it seeks to find new avenues
to reach out and show God’s love. Pray also that we would have wisdom in
mentoring and developing leaders in the local church who will take up the challenge
of reaching their communities.

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

This past weekend was Tabaski(in West Africa,) or Eid al-Adha, “the feast of the sacrifice”,
where Muslims celebrate the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son and God’s
provision of the substitutionary lamb. As I understand it (and my understanding
is very limited) each family has to have a lamb (one for each wife), the lamb
is blessed by the religious leaders and slaughtered to cover the sins of the
family for the year. Then the lamb is roasted by an open fire all day and the
family enjoys the organ meat the first day than shares the roasted lamb with
family and friends and the needy. This year was the first time that I can
remember the celebration falling on a Sunday, so as we were leaving church we
had the experience of seeing family after family skinning and preparing their
sheep for roasting—it is a very involved process. One of the boys commented
that they saw a sheep looking on while the others around were being slaughter
and they thought that was crazy that the sheep didn’t seem to be reacting.Dave commented that sheep are stupid like
that.

But I think that sometimes we are like those
sheep and are willing to turn a blind eye to what is happening around us and
hope that it doesn’t really affect us. It is easier just to look out for number
one and not care what is happening to others, because if we start to care we
may have to try and do something about it and that might cost us. How often do
we choose to just nod or smile and say hi to our neighbours without taking the
time to find out what is really happening in their lives? Or live in fear of rejection instead of
sharing the hope that we have in Jesus? What kind of hope do we have if we live
and fear and keep it to ourselves?

As an outsider I see a lot of the good and the bad of
Tabaski. I know that the hope of the sacrifice covering their sins is futile. The
sacrifice and cost of the sheep, no matter how expensive, can never be enough
no matter how often it is done. I see so many who can’t afford this going in to
debt to make it happen because of the shame that comes if you aren’t
participating. There is an incredible amount of pressure for those who walk
away from Islam because so much of this celebration is public (the fires burn
on the side of the road with all the neighbours sheep roasting together). There
is a unity in the celebration that binds the people together in the joy (or is
it the competition) and there is a generosity thatbecomes a necessity (because who can eat that
much meat before it goes bad).

I guess it makes me
wonder what we as Christians have to offer in the area of celebrations,
Christmas, Easter and maybe Thanksgiving? Have we let the world so
commercialize them that they are no longer communal celebrations and times when
we can share the love of Christ with those around us? Or are we just selfish in
how we choose to celebrate? I know that I get really tired even just thinking
about trying to share Christmas with my Muslim friends and neighbours and they
come with a lot of their own expectations that the media has fed them too. It
makes me want to give up and run away because I know that I can never measure
up, but I guess that is not the point. The point is to share the love of Christ
and let them know there is a sacrifice that is sufficient.

Things seem to be moving ahead on the building
reconstruction. Pray that the construction goes well and good decisions are
made (I’ll try to get some pictures up soon).

It is hard to believe that the first quarter of the school
year is drawing to a close already this week (but that is what happens when you
start school the second week in August.)Please pray that I would be able to get caught up in my marking over the
school break.

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About Me

Dave and Jenn are presently somewhere in the northern part of the city of Niamey working on learning Zarma (a local language) and trying to establish the "Eglise Methodist Libre du Canada" in Niger. Cole and Ben are their two sons that get to come along for the adventure too!